Women face arduous path to management

The senior executive jobs at Aust­ralia’s listed companies remain out of reach for most women as the slow progress towards gender equity has stalled here over the last few years.

Despite some recent efforts, including the Australian Securities Exchange corporate governance guidelines for diversity, the top ranks remain stubbornly male, as the 2010 Census of Women in Leadership clearly shows.

Most disturbingly, the critical level of women in line management roles has not changed at all from the 4.1 per cent of two years ago.

It’s a sad reality that most organisations are doing little more than talk about this issue rather than making any real effort to unblock the pipeline into the executive suite where the big decisions are made and careers forged.

The data in the report is terrible, says
Mairi Steele
, acting director of Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency.

In the eight years since the census was launched, another cohort of women have acquired experience and qualifications and need that pipeline to move up the ranks, she says. “We need more research on this whole area. What’s been happening in that period? Are women saying, ‘I am sick of trying’? What’s happening to women who are not staying? Are they going off to set up a ­business?"

Kerry Willcock, executive general manager, corporate and legal, at
Tabcorp
, is one of two women out of seven senior executives in the organisation’s top team.

Tabcorp, along with
Pacific Brands
and
Spotless
, are the only companies in the census with at least 25 per cent women in executive key management and on the board.

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Along with a number of recruitment and promotion processes that support gender equity, the senior executives at Tabcorp are also strongly committed, she says.

“Our [managing director]
Elmer Funke Kupper
and his predecessor were very conscious of gender issues so there is certainly no blockers there for them," she says. The company’s steps to address gender representation were not necessarily complicated but the census shows few companies were able to deliver.

“It’s the way it should be, but the reality is the world is not as it should be," says Willcock, who is always dumbfounded when she sees the statistics on representation.

The last census, in 2008, revealed such a backward slide in representation that it triggered calls for consideration of legislated quotas for women on boards.

There’s been much bewailing of the poor results since then but the 2010 data remains almost as grim. There are more women being appointed to boards, but the pathways into board directorships and senior roles are clearly still much more difficult to access for women.

One of the most disappointing statistics was the rise in the number of all-male boards, Steele says.

“The reasons we don’t know. There are 52 companies that are new to the census and, it seems, a fair proportion are in the resources sector but the same number also came out so it’s a small net change," she adds.

You couldn’t really call any of this report progressive. The only company with anywhere near equal numbers at senior ranks is Pacific Brands, which has as chief executive
Sue Morphet
, and 43 per cent women in senior executive roles and 50 per cent board directors.

Australia continues to fall behind the rest of the world, too. The number of women in senior jobs at Australian S&P/ASX 200 companies lags behind New Zealand, UK, Canada, the US and South Africa.

Although corporate leaders believe there is a problem with gender parity in business, they are failing to seriously address it or allocate the necessary resources, according to the recent study by consultancy Bain, titled “Level the playing field".

That’s certainly part of the problem, says Steele.

“I would also be encouraging people who are in organisations covered by EOWA legislation to make sure they are reporting and put it in your annual report. It’s a form of compliance and fairly rigorous and not just about being an employer of choice but complying with a piece of legislation on equity for women."

Without urgent attention the small number of women at the top of companies and those aspiring to such roles will dwindle further. That’s a waste we can ill afford.